In modern use, "Scottish people" or "Scots" is used to refer to anyone whose linguistic, cultural, family ancestral or genetic origins are from within Scotland. The Latin word Scotti originally referred to the Gaels but came to describe all inhabitants of Scotland. Though sometimes considered archaic or pejorative, the term Scotch has also been used for the Scottish people, though this usage is current primarily outside Scotland.

There are people of Scottish descent in many countries other than Scotland. Emigration, influenced by factors such as the Highland and Lowland Clearances, Scottish participation in the British Empire, and latterly industrial decline and unemployment, resulted in Scottish people being found throughout the world. Large populations of Scottish people settled the new-world lands of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. There is a Scottish presence at a particularly high level in Canada, which has the highest level per-capita of Scots descendants in the world and second largest population of descended Scots ancestry after the United States. They took with them their Scottish languages and culture.

The ScottishCourts and Tribunals Service described the high number as a “success” and said it shows their security provisions are working effectively ... The number of drugs seizures at Scottishcourt buildings rose by 35 per cent from 98 to 132, while alcohol seizures rose by 28 per cent from 1254 to 1608....

Tom Courts Butchers has just been crowned Scottish Haggis Champion of the year, while Novelli's ice cream shop was highlighted in the Scotsman as one of the best in Scotland... Tom Courts, fresh from winning the Scottish haggis champion award, said ... Scottish retail parks snapped up in £60m deal....

An anti-abortion group has lost its legal challenge against the ScottishGovernment's decision to allow women to take abortion pills at home... It returned to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to appeal in April after it lost its legal challenge against the move last year....

The ScottishGovernment is facing calls to spell out what efforts are being made to "retrieve any information that has been deleted" about its collapsed harassment probe into Alex Salmond... An internal probe into complaints about Salmond collapsed in January after the Scottish Government was found to have acted illegally by the Court of Session....

On Friday, proposals to restrict the use of short prison sentences were published by the Scottish government. If passed by MSPs at Holyrood, it will oblige courts to explain why custodial terms of less than a year were given ... "However, we want to ensure courts consider the most ......

New sentencing guidelines are being drawn up for a range of sexual offences amid an increasing number of cases in Scotland’s courts. The ScottishSentencing Council said it planned to develop multiple guidelines for how the courts deal with rape, sexual assault and indecent images of children....

Plans to develop multiple guidelines for the sentencing of people convicted in a range of sexual offence cases have been announced by the ScottishSentencing Council... The development comes amid an increase in the volume of sexual offence cases coming before the Scottishcourts in recent years....